Having finally obtained a majority on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Democrat-aligned think tanks in DC are hoping to put Title II regulations of telecoms companies, aka “Net Neutrality,” back on the agenda.
Having failed to secure the necessary Senate support to install their preferred, radical candidate Gigi Sohn at the FCC, the Biden administration finally confirmed a different nominee, Anna Gomez, as commissioner earlier this month, breaking an unusual 2-2 logjam at the Commission.
Almost immediately, Democrats in Congress as well as progressive nonprofits began agitating for the return of Title II regulations on telecoms companies, a measure that had been repealed under the Trump Administration.
And, on Monday, 27 Senate Democrats wrote a letter to the chairwoman of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel, urging the agency to reinstate Title II regulations on internet service providers. The Senators who attached their names to the letter include Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) among others.
The progressive nonprofit Free Press published a post late last week, calling on members of the public to sign a petition urging the FCC to restore net neutrality regulations.
Introduced under the Obama administration before the era of social media censorship, “Net Neutrality” was sold to the public as a means of protecting the free and open internet, by making telecoms companies common carriers, and therefore restricted in their ability to deny anyone service.
(The Associated Press)
After a meeting voting to end net neutrality, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai smiles. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Free Press echoed these arguments, stating that Net Neutrality is required to preserve an internet that is “free, open and accessible to all.”
After over half a decade of Democrats, the Biden White House, and Democrat-aligned organizations pushing social media censorship to never-before seen levels, this line of argument will be much less persuasive this time.
Progressives and Democrats lost their minds when the FCC repealed net neutrality under Trump, predicting the end of the internet as we know it, and a variety of other disasters. As Breitbart News predicted at the time, none of these doom-laden predictions came true, and in fact broadband speeds across the country improved.
The only major change that negatively impacted internet users after 2017 was something the progressive defenders of a “free and open internet” pushed themselves: the vast, international censorship industry, the inner workings of which have been laid bare by the Twitter Files, Missouri v. Biden, and investigations from congressional republicans.
These revelations confirmed what former FCC chairman Ajit Pai said during the repeal of Net Neutrality: that platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, otherwise known as edge providers, were a greater threat to online freedom than ISPs.
Many will wonder why the supposed advocates of a “free and open internet” at Free Press and other progressive nonprofits don’t want Title II regulations applied to social media platforms, that censor access to their platforms regularly, as opposed to the internet service providers, which do not.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.